Red, White & Royal Blue

Alex remembers coming to the White House for the first time. He was so proud of Ellen and so nervous he feared he’d vomit—and he almost fell into a bush when he tried to tie his shoe. Now, approaching the White House again, he feels the same way. The limo door opens and June is there, wearing a shirt that says, “HISTORY, HUH?” When he tackles her in a hug, they both fall into a bush. They catch up on the Truman Balcony, and when Alex has told her everything, she reveals that Nora has been holed up in her apartment for two days and won’t speak or see anyone. Alex is hurt, but this is pretty normal Nora behavior when she feels overwhelmed. June hands over a paper, the thing Alex asked for her help with, and Alex exclaims happily after reading a bit of it.

Amy appears and calls June and Nora to come meet with Ellen. Two hours later, as Ellen, June, Zahra, and Alex are busy with various things, Nora bursts in and almost throws a thick folder at Ellen. Nora begs Ellen to read it—nobody will be mad at Nora for disappearing after they learn what she’s been up to. After skimming, an incredulous Ellen asks how Nora got this. Nora explains that the day the Alex and Henry photos leaked, she got an anonymous email from a supposed hacker with the contents of the Richards campaign’s private email server. The hacker said that they knew Nora cared about Alex and would, with the information, find out the truth: that the Richards campaign set Alex up.

Nora believes there are enough financial records to warrant a federal investigation and a subpoena for the rest. In short, Richards hired a firm who hired photographers and hackers. He hired another firm to buy the content and sell it to the Daily Mail. Richards, Nora sums up, spied on a member of the First Family to stir up a sex scandal and win the presidency. Alex is relieved, and Ellen says they’re leaking this to the press. Unfortunately, Nora can’t figure out who sent this to her, and the press will want to verify the emails. She pulls up the email on her phone. At the bottom is a string of letters and numbers—which Alex recognizes as Rafael Luna’s Five Guys order from when Alex worked on his campaign. If Ellen can protect Luna, Alex says, Luna will confirm everything.

On the “Bills, Bills, Bills” podcast, host Oliver Westbrook, a constitutional law professor, breaks down the latest Washington Post story about the Richards campaign’s “diabolical plan” to stalk and harass Alex Claremont. Just before this episode was recorded, Rafael Luna tweeted that he was leaving the Richards campaign. Perhaps, Oliver suggests, Luna joined the campaign just so he could reveal the plan. The three big takeaways, according to Oliver, are that Alex didn’t do anything wrong, that Jeffrey Richards “committed a hostile act of conspiracy against a sitting president,” and that Luna somehow became the 2020 election’s hero.

At the White House, Alex is preparing to make a speech—the one that June rewrote, and which Ellen praises after reading it. Henry will stand with Alex, in the classic spot for spouses. Now, Henry arrives on Marine One, and he and Alex make out until Zahra finds them. Finally, it’s time. They kiss, step out, and Alex gives his speech. In it, he emphasizes that he’s “a child of America,” born and raised in Texas. Then, he met Henry. They’ve been together for almost a year, and they’ve grappled with how to share their relationship with the world. However, Alex isn’t ashamed to say that he loves Henry and that he’s bi. Now, he asks that people don’t hold his choices and identity against Ellen, who is the best candidate for president. Alex cares about the American people, and he hopes to continue to be their First Son.

The next day is a blur. For safety, Alex stays in the Residence, but he watches CNN’s live stream of the group gathered outside the White House. Cash is there, with Amy and Amy’s wife. Amy wears a trans flag pin, and Amy’s wife is wearing a jean jacket that Amy embroidered with flowers the colors of the trans flag. Jeffrey Richards gives a bigoted interview on TV, and Oscar responds. Alex visits Luna’s office and tosses him Skittles. Then, he asks if Luna knew this would happen. Luna assures Alex he didn’t—he wouldn’t hurt Alex purposefully like that. Alex asks in that case, what did happen?

Sighing, Luna says that he interned for Richards in 2000, when he was just 19. Rumors swirled among the interns that for girls—and occasionally “pretty boy[s]”—there were benefits available if one accepted an invitation to get a drink. Nobody could say no. Luna accepted, thinking this was his ticket. But Richards got him drunk and tried to assault him. Grimly, Luna says he pretended everything was fine until Richards invited him out again. At that point, Luna threatened to go to the papers if Richards tried anything—and Richards pulled out a file detailing Luna’s teenaged misdeeds, and that some of his family is undocumented. If Luna said anything, Richards warned, he’d ruin Luna and his entire family. Luna knew that Richards believed Luna owed him because he didn’t ruin Luna’s life then.

Luna continues. He knew he couldn’t let Richards, a “predator,” win the presidency, so he decided to convince Richards he wouldn’t get the Hispanic or moderate votes without bringing Luna on board. Then, Luna knew he could find evidence of abuse—especially in Richards’s Youth Congress program. He explains that he had no idea what was going on with Alex, but when the story leaked, he was sure Richards was behind it and knew how to get the email server to Nora. Alex asks if Oscar knows, but Luna says nobody knows he was a triple agent. Oscar does know about the abuse and wanted Luna to come forward years ago, but Luna didn’t think anyone in power would believe or care that Richards did this to “a gay Mexican kid.” Alex assures Luna that he believes him.

Alex points out how “crazy” this whole plan was. When Luna says he just wanted to fight, Alex thinks about the LSAT results he hasn’t looked at yet—how will he do the most good in the world? Luna apologizes, and Alex accepts it. They lament that what Richards did to Luna probably won’t affect Richards’s base much, and Luna suggests that he expects someone will come to him with some crime still in the statute of limitations—and then “we” can open an investigation. Alex recognizes the veiled suggestion to go to law school. Just then, Oscar enters with beers. Oscar opines that Richards doesn’t have enough time to turn voters against Ellen because of Alex’s sexuality. America already elected a woman, for one. They’re all going to be fine, and he tells Alex that Alex still has a chance to enter politics.

While Henry is in D.C., he gets his own room in the White House: the Queen’s Bedroom, which is “aggressively pink.” He insists on his own room out of respect for Ellen, so Alex joins Henry and spends the night there. When they wake in the morning, Henry insists that he has to deal with his family before Alex can come back to England as the official royal suitor. He admits that this whole thing has been “frightening but a bit nice,” as he’s finally getting to do something on his own. They joke and kiss, knowing Henry will return to England in a few hours, and Alex will return to the campaign trail.